MMA For the non-UGers...ADCC Blog/Pics

I have trained for three years and four months. I’m a full-time pre-med student, not a full-time athlete. As just a purple belt, I’m the highest ranking [active] jiu jitsu student in my unknown school from Little Rock, Arkansas. And I’m on a plane, hungry as hell, on my way to Barcelona to compete against the world’s best. This is re-freaking-donkulus.

That went through my head, oh, only a few thousand times as I was on my way to ADCC. Renzo Gracie, Marcelo Garcia, Ben Askren, Ricco Rodriguez, and many other grappling stars were dotted across the plane. I was giggling, resisting the urge to be a grappling groupie and take pictures with everyone.

Weigh-ins were set for Friday at 11 AM so after barely snacking “dinner” on the plane Wednesday I began to fast food and water. I was at about 143 pounds and not a happy camper. Ryan Hall and I went to explore the city, happening upon a strange park that was pigeon infested and looked like the metal spider from Wild Wild West. Ryan disappointed me and the entire costal population. “Whoa! That’s like a duck-pigeon hybrid! What is that?” “Uh...Ryan...that’s a seagull.” “Oh. Right.” That’s okay, we were both very, very hungry.

I hate cutting weight. I hate it, hate it, hate it. I cut about 4.5 pounds Thursday night and managed to get a good night’s rest before Friday morning. Lana [Stephanac] was my roommate and was a sweetheart by not eating in front of me in my misery. Friday morning at 6 AM I was 138 pounds and feeling awful. I did a cycle in and out of the sauna until I got dizzy, Luana from Alliance keeping me company as she was cutting as well. By 10 AM I had managed 132 pounds and was dying. My eardrums had even dried out--they popped and I couldn’t hear a damn thing. I weighed in for the 60 kg category at 59.8 kg, looking awful and emaciated, then promptly downed a liter of coconut water and decided sipping might have been a better option.

Then the brackets came out. Being the new girl, I was given what was considered the hardest seed with Megumi Fujii. I wasn’t surprised, actually, I’d been expecting to get Megumi since the athlete list was complete. Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu and I were watching Elite Squad that night to prepare for battle and Lana and I began to talk about how we feel about competing and training. Cyborg handled most of it before blurting, “Man, women are f*cking crazy! You think 34 different things about something simple! Just train, just compete!”

I ate breakfast with Cristiane Cyborg (who is a REALLY sweet girl!) and laughed when she couldn’t manage to open the honey jar and handed it to me, which I quickly popped open. Does that give me street cred? Back to 141 pounds by Saturday morning and feeling good, we all boarded the bus and I found myself again feeling like a kid in a candy store with all the stars around me. I felt so lucky just to be there. Matt and Roli came to help me warm up, but it was a futile effort. After years of competing without them being able to go, I’ve developed a solitary warm up and didn’t want to change anything at the last minute.

Megumi has been one of my favorite grapplers ever. She’s so fast, so technical, and so amazing. My heart was pounding in my ears as I went to compete. But I wasn’t thinking. Roberto’s voice still range in my head, “Just compete!” Roli told me to use my size and aggression to my advantage, told me to be rough and try to break her mentally. Roli has a tendency to be right.

Megumi threw up a BEAUTIFUL flying armbar after we had traded for a bit and had my arm completely straight. It never hurt and the escape came without thinking. I worked for a while before getting double unders on her and Fujii is way stronger than she looks--she was stopping my passing attempts. I heard Cyborg’s scratchy voice in the crowd yelling, “Get your shoulder underneath her leg Gringa!” I managed to pass and could feel Megumi going to turtle. I felt strong and good as I slipped my first--and then second--hooks in. The choke came naturally and I couldn’t believe it.

Now came the silly part, and the part that confirms [male] Cyborg is right about all women being bat-shit crazy. I grappled Megumi like I had nothing to lose, but after beating her all eyes were on me. Now, I went from being written off to “wow, she should win.” And I let that get in my head. Sayaka is VERY good, VERY strong, and VERY technical. And I let her play her game instead of me playing mine. I also proved that, yes, I’m in fact still a purple belt. I have always had trouble passing butterfly guard and that’s exactly where we ended up. Sayaka out-techniqued me the entire match and proved that she is the better grappler. I left my arm out and got it popped. My heart sank into my shoes. I trained for so long, so hard, and drug my coaches to Spain to make them watch me make an amateur mistake.

I’m not gonna lie, I cried like a fucking baby. I hate losing. It’s the worst thing in the world. Matt and Roli consoled me, saying that I had a ton of potential and couldn’t forget the next match, as I’d be up against 2x black belt World Champion Laurence Cousin. Cyborg was not so nice in his consolation. “Shut the f*ck up. Pick your head up, damnit. Stop bitching, now you have go for third. That last match is OVER.” Someone Cyborg’s size chewing you out in Portuguese in a room full of Brazilians is an intimidating thing, but it worked. I sucked it up, rolled again like I had nothing to lose, and passed Laurence’s guard and was working on her back went time ran out.

So I got third. It sucks, but it happens. I suppose it would be quite selfish for me to expect to beat the girls who have been training for ten years, but I was hungry for that win. I went out, I tried, and I’ll come back with better technique and a better head in two years. Training starts now.

Thank you to MTX Audio, Jiu Jitsu Pro Gear, Bill McPherson, Kirik, MMA Girls, and Rio Sports tours for helping sponsor me through tournaments so I could get to this level quickly. Thank you to everyone I've trained with and everyone that told me I could accomplish something new in ADCC when I didn't believe it. I’ll be back in the gym tomorrow (arm permitting, maybe wait until Wednesday) and be working on fixing those mistakes.